FORWARD OPERATING BASE FENTY, Afghanistan,
Nov. 15, 2007
– “On the 8th of November, the angels were crying as they carried his brothers
away. … There were few men left standing that day,” sings the country duo Big
& Rich in their ballad commemorating the fall of 48 American soldiers from
173rd Airborne Brigade in 1965 in Operation Hump in Vietnam.

Forty-two years later, members of 173rd Airborne Brigade,
other service members and civilians deployed here honored the fallen soldiers
of Operation Hump by participating in a 24-hour relay.

The event celebrated unit cohesion, teamwork and esprit de
corps, officials said. Participants ran along a nearly three-and-a-half mile
route lined by miniature American flags and passed a bayonet, which is depicted
on the unit patch of the 173rd ABCT, to one another in lieu of a baton. The
event was made even more special by having a Vietnam
veteran, Rick Petersen from the Facility Engineer Team, participate.

“I think it is a great idea. I think it is great that
everybody is going to come out here and support one another. It is great for
camaraderie,” said 2nd Lt. Kate Fullenkamp, a
quartermaster officer and platoon leader in Company A,
173rd Brigade Support Battalion (Airborne).

Her platoon of 40 entered with two seven-person teams. There
would have been more volunteers, but mission requirements did not allow all of
her soldiers to participate, she said.

“We had more than seven people who wanted to do this, but we
picked the best seven,” said Pfc.
IkechukuOdi, a combat
engineer with Road Clearance Patrol 4, Company A, 70th
Engineer Battalion, deployed from Fort
Riley, Kan.

Ever since they found out about the race, the engineers ran
two laps every day when they didn’t go outside the wire, in preparation for the
challenging race. When Odi heard about the race, he
thought, “We are going to win this,” he said.

“Our tactic is simple: run as fast as you can,” he said,
after completing his first lap in a little over 22 minutes.

“Some people are out here for the physical aspect, … but there are people that are out here because it
is fun and you enjoy it and you will always remember it, for sure,” Fullenkamp said.

The rules of the run were pretty simple. “Basically it is a
24-hour relay with seven-man teams. One runner must be running at all times,”
said 1st. Sgt. Drake F. Sladky, Company C, 173rd
Brigade Support Battalion. An avid sportsman, he was one of the masterminds
behind the event.

Sladky
said many in the 173rd Airborne liked the idea of organizing another run after
running a 10-kilometer race shortly after the unit’s arrival in Afghanistan.
Originally they were aiming for New Year’s Day, but then they received a disk
containing the music video, “8th of November,” from James Bradley, a member of
the 173rd Association. “We knew that we had to do some sort of race in
commemoration of that date,” Sladky explained.

“Everybody in the company helped out, mostly by getting
sponsors for the race day and organizing the registration,” Sladky
said. As a result, a total of 21 teams signed up.

“We were really lucky; we started early and got sponsors. …
The 173rd Association sent the race T-shirts. Niles Harris (the Vietnam
veteran who was the inspiration for the country song and was himself injured on
Nov. 8, 1965)
sent about 200 autographed T-shirts,” Sladky said.

Some of the shirts ended up as prizes, but the majority were
sent out to subordinate units of the 173rd who are deployed to other forward
operating bases and weren’t able to participate in the run. Prizes included
name-brand golf clubs, shirts, hats and a multitude of other things. No team
went home empty-handed.

Odi
was right when he said he thought his team was going to win. On the
9th of November, 2007, perhaps the angels were smiling a little as his team
carried their prizes away.